Response – Psalm 116

So what is our response to God in our lives, giving us by his mercy the ability to breathe, to love, to long? What is our response to a God who has provided a way of salvation and freedom from our sins? 

What is our response to a God who considers being with us as “precious?”

O LORD, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
You have loosed my bonds.

I offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
And call on the name of the LORD.
I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people,
In the courts of the house of the LORD,
In our midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the LORD!

For myself, I cannot help but bow in submission, in humility, for what he has done in my life. I’m still trying to wrap my head around his love, and I’m sure I never will. He has loosed my bonds to sin, creating in me a new person. I owe him my self, my being, and as a person redeemed, I owe him my service.

I think of Psalm 123:2 – Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, until He is gracious to us.

I also offer thanksgiving and faithfulness. I think of being faithful to my integrity, the things I feel deeply about that make me who I am and connect me with who God made me.  

And I think of doing it publicly. I know a lot of people think “religion” is personal. They are afraid of the “show” or hypocrisy. Maybe they are afraid of being judged by others as too religious or not enough. But this isn’t a competition, and there should not be judging. Each person stands on their own before God. He is the one who sees Christ within us. 

I feel it is important to go public with our faith. We are the “witness” others see God. I’m past the point of speaking in public, so my little blog is my public platform. It gets my faith from secret thoughts to where it belongs, on the forum of the world. I think of the childhood song, This Little Light of Mine, and it’s empathic, “Hide it under a bushel? No!”

So I’m going to say the words God gives me until that “precious” moment in his sight.

In the meantime, keep reading…